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(water burbling) (birds chirping) >>What winter means to you is almost certainly dependent on where you live.

If you're in the northern states where the climate is a little more harsh, you may be familiar with a snowfall that several feet deep or sub-zero temperatures.

Those in the southern states often don't have much experience with snow but winter still means colder temperatures and daylight hours have much shorter duration and there are seasonal changes everywhere.

Here in Virginia, we're very lucky because we have four distinct seasons, each one of which has very unique characteristics.

For those of us who do truly experience cold winter weather, we know that bundling up with extra layers of clothing before we go outside to shovel snow or just enjoy the outdoors is critical to staying warm.

When we're indoors, we know the joy of getting under that blanket or sitting in front of a roaring fire to fend off the cold.

But what does wildlife do during the winter to survive those dark months?

Nearly every species of wildlife has developed remarkably similar adaptations that let them survive in the colder months.

For some species, they are active all winter and they stay in their native habitat but they will bundle up just like we do by adding extra layers.

That may be an extra layer of hair or fur for their winter coat or an extra layer of fat that helps them survive those winter months.

Others will spend the winter in family groups or flocks or herds where they can share body heat, a wonderful coping mechanism.

Many species will actually hibernate essentially sleeping through the cold winter months, living off the extra fat they've stored up in the fall.

For cold-blooded species like reptiles and amphibians, they just deal with it.

They adjust their body temperature to the outdoor temperature and they also remain largely inactive in a state of almost suspended animation for the cold winter months.

Under normal circumstances, hibernating or brumating wildlife do just fine during those winter months.

But if they're disturbed, either by human activity or by some dramatic fluctuation in temperature that are happening much more frequently as we are changing the climate, that disruption can have really severe consequences.

And like many people, some birds do it the easy way, or at least the way a lot of people do, they just leave the cold winter temperatures and go south for the winter.

Migratory species like hawks and songbirds, they have made a coping mechanism of avoiding those extreme temperatures and they will make an often difficult and often challenging migration flight.

But when they arrive, they hope they'll find plentiful food and temperatures that are far more agreeable.

For these migratory species to survive, however, they must be supported along that journey with appropriate habitat, and when they arrived, they must find wintering habitat that is still intact, able to support them through those winter months.

As humans alter the climate and the landscape, these migratory species are facing many new challenges.

(gentle dramatic music) >>My name is Steve Living and I'm the Department of Wildlife Resources Habitat Education Coordinator.

So migration is a really interesting phenomenon and animals migrate for a number of reasons.

It can be defined breeding areas, food resources or to avoid harsh weather.

There's a number of bird species that don't migrate and are resident year round through Virginia.

So some of the species that we're really familiar with, like northern cardinal, blue jays, great horned owls and wild turkey, spend their whole year here and they're adapted to find the resources they need.

And in some species, some members may migrate and others may stick around.

So our American robins, some will engage in short-term migration and others will stay through the winter and switch from eating insects to eating berries like holly.

So whether or not a species of bird migrates really depends on how they make their living.

Species that feed really heavily on insect prey may move further south once insect numbers start to decrease and the weather starts to get colder.

They're moving to South and Central America and they find more regular and plentiful food resource there through the winter.

For others, they're well adapted to deal with the cold weather and to find food by remaining where they are here in North America and they may find less competition because so many other species have moved on.

A lot of our wood warblers and vireos are migrating from North America and out of Virginia down to wintering grounds in South and Central America.

But a number of bird species do migrate to the Central Atlantic area here in Virginia in particular.

We'll see waterfowl move from some of the tundra areas and they move south, and as the lakes and open water freeze up north, that's a resource they need and they can find that here.

Our rivers in the Chesapeake Bay are typically ice free through the winter.

Birds like bald eagles will move to the Chesapeake Bay on our tidal rivers because there's abundant food resources through the winter.

So we see lots of eagles here year round.

And some of our really common songbirds, white-throated sparrows and juncos breed in the far northern forests and weather can get pretty harsh there in the winter, so they find Virginia to be a little more hospitable.

Migration is physically demanding and challenging and birds are relying on habitat where they breed, stopover locations along the route to refuel and recharge, and then where they're gonna end up and overwinter and there's challenges in all of those areas.

We see habitat development and fragmentation, increased invasive species, degrading habitat.

And then, there are special challenges along some of the migration routes where tall buildings and other structures and light pollution in urban areas can cause collisions and can cause disorientation.

We can do a lot to help these animals by maintaining healthy habitats throughout their ranges and that includes conservation areas and we can do that work in our own yards.

We can use native plants and ensure that we're providing good habitat throughout the year.

We really encourage people to watch and enjoy wildlife when they're here.

Regardless of what time of year, if it's during breeding, migration, or as they overwinter, you wanna be respectful.

Watch from a distance so that you're not disturbing these animals because they're putting a lot of resources into just surviving.

(bright inspiring music) >>My name is Michael Adkins.

I work at the front desk at the Wildlife Center.

So we answer all the phone calls, emails, and admit all the patients that come into the front door.

There are lots of ways that animals that stay in Virginia year round cope with the extreme temperatures, the winter cold.

The ones that stay more active all year round, the ones who are used to seeing outside such as deer or non-migratory songbirds that stay here all year round, foxes, they'll cope with the winter weather by molting into a thicker winter coats, using extra storage of fat, caching food for the winter and for the upcoming spring.

So other kinds of species will enter a state of reduced activity or torpor in order to survive the extreme temperatures such as bats, bears, groundhogs, a wide variety of animals, reptiles and amphibians as well.

The animals people are most likely to encounter in the wintertime are those animals that stay relatively active year round, hawks, owls, songbirds, white-tailed deer, foxes, these are animals that are pretty much active all year round in Virginia.

A lot of people think that feeding animals during the wintertime is helpful or necessary but these animals have adapted to really survive on limited or alternative resources during the winter months when their normal sources of food are a little harder to find.

The best thing we can do for species that are active year round are really just be mindful of our winter neighbors.

Any wildlife that is showing abnormal behavior is obviously injured or in distress, those are the animals that require human intervention.

Otherwise, these animals are generally okay to just observe and be left alone.

When amphibians or reptiles enter a state of torpor or reduced activity, it's called brumation.

It's similar to hibernation.

Basically, these animals, in order to find a more thermally stable environment, will bury themselves under leaf litter, underground in crevices in the earth, basically to find a more stable climate where they can survive harsher temperatures and enter a state of reduced activity so they can be safer during those months.

Many animals that hibernate aren't actually totally inactive all year round.

Black bears are one famous example of this.

So they will enter their dens and cease their biological processes during the winter months but it's not unusual for them to come out of their dens especially during warmer days.

This is when people are still seeing bears get into their trash cans or bird feeders, or just generally around the area.

So it's not unusual to see a bear during the winter months.

Even though it's not unusual to see bears out during the winter months, you should still keep an eye out for any concerning signs of an animal that might be in distress or possibly orphaned.

The winter is actually when black bears are beginning to have their cubs and this is generally when we start to receive our first calls and concerns regarding black bears in Virginia.

Many of the calls that we received during the winter time, especially for those animals that remain active all winter long are, "Is this animal okay?"

"Is it supposed to be here?"

"Is it behaving normally for this time of year?"

And if you have any of these questions or don't know, never hesitate to call your local wildlife rehabilitator just for advice.

The animal might be totally fine but it's better to be safe than sorry.

A lot of the other concerns we get for those animals are some of the common circumstances we receive animals all year long.

They were hit by a vehicle.

They were trapped in someone's home or they were caught by a cat or a dog.

(wistful tense music) >>Nearly every species in wildlife has adapted a unique and specialized strategy to survive the winter months.

And if left to their own devices, almost all wildlife can survive very, very well without our help.

But for those species that sleep away the winter, if they do happen to be disrupted, that disruption can have potentially grave consequences.

And of course, for the animals that remain in their native habitat but remain active all winter, they're still vulnerable to injuries and illness, such as being hit by a car, being poisoned, being entrapped, or a lot of other human-related threats.

And when those things happen, those animals do need our help to survive.

(gentle wistful music) >>My name is Kelsey Pleasants.

I'm the Wildlife Rehabilitation Supervisor at the Wildlife Center in Virginia.

During the winter months, it's what we call our bird season.

So it's really raptor heavy.

So we see a lot of hawks and eagles but also a lot of owls.

Those animals have food sources that are becoming much more scarce during the winter season.

So those rodents and invertebrates, whatever that they usually like to eat, so to make up for that, they're coming closer to human-inhabited areas, and then they're getting into trouble by maybe flying into buildings.

A lot of them are hit by cars.

We even had an owl that was hit by train recently.

Also, cats are a big issue.

So some of our smaller species that we see in the winter, may be impacted by outdoor cats.

For example, this winter, we've admitted a lot of bats which is kind of unusual.

And almost all of those bats have been found on the ground or on a building and they have just been able to be scooped up by people because they assume they're in the wrong spot.

Or alternatively, they are being caught by cats.

Caring for outdoor patients in harsh winter weather conditions is a challenge of its own.

Naturally in the wild, these species already know what food source is readily available so that they have calories to have energy to stay warm.

They also have their own areas of shelter, places to kind of hunker down, stay out of the rain, stay out of heavy snowfall, and just maintain their life in that cold environment.

Here in captivity, they're confined to an enclosure that doesn't have those natural areas that they're used to.

So we as staff here have to make sure we're providing them with adequate enclosures, adequate space to hide from that inclement weather, adequate areas to stay warm, and also food that doesn't freeze so that they are still able to eat and have enough calories to maintain their body temperature.

Some of our species we have during the winter would normally be doing what is called brumation or form of hibernation in the winter.

Naturally, they would be kind of underground or under, you know, logs, leaf litter, things like that and they would be virtually inactive during the winter season.

They have stored up fat reserves to get through.

They don't really need to come out and be active.

In captivity, we are unable to replicate that environment for them to brumate or hibernate naturally.

So we can expect to lower activity levels during the day and even lower appetite.

However, we're still offering food and we are still treating them as if it's kind of the spring and summer season and they would be active, just keeping in mind that if they eat, only twice a week versus every day, that might not be abnormal.

Their body might actually be going through physiological changes to adapt to that change.

Each species that we rehabilitate has a really specific set of release criteria.

We're not going to put them back in the wild without knowing for sure that they can survive, that they can find food, find shelter, find a mate, and also know predators and be able to avoid those.

In the spring and summer, that is a lot easier because things are warm.

Resources are plenty.

It's not hard to get them to where they need to be for release.

However, in the winter, there are a lot more challenges.

Is this a patient that was admitted, you know, late spring, early fall that's ready for release midwinter?

We probably wouldn't release that patient.

For example, a squirrel.

If a squirrel came in in early November and was ready for release mid December, we're gonna overwinter that patient until the spring.

Normally, squirrels would have come up with a cache so they have a food source.

They would already have an estimate for the winter, so they have somewhere warm to stay.

If this squirrel has been with us all of through the fall, they don't have those resources.

So we can't guarantee its survival.

So we're gonna hold on to that patient.

But if a squirrel came in mid December for something minor and was ready for release in, say a month, we can assume safely that they have a cache and that they know where their home is.

So we would consider releasing that patient.

If you come across a wild animal during the winter months that you are unsure if it's normal to see this species out and about, give a call to your local rehab center or game department.

They should be able to help you figure out what that species is, let you know about the natural history, and whether the behavior you're seeing is normal for that patient.

If it's not, they can tell you how to safely capture and bring in for care.

(calm lilting music) >>I'm Jeremy Hoffman.

I'm the David and Jane Cohn Scientist here at the Science Museum of Virginia and I'm an affiliate faculty in the Wilder School and Center for Environmental Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Human-caused climate change is really a change in the expectation of the weather in a particular place and this is largely due to the emission of heat trapping gases from burning fossil fuels.

Now climate is the long-term average of the weather conditions in a particular place.

Typically, we call climate the 30-year average or normal of the weather in a particular place.

Now, how does that relate back to climate change?

If we consider climate as this long-term average of conditions, climate change then is a shift in those conditions over time.

So it means an overall shift in the expected temperature, precipitation patterns that a place usually experiences.

The interesting thing is that our seasons are really dictated by the tilt of the planet in our orbit around the sun.

So no matter what, our seasons really aren't going anywhere.

It's really our experience of those seasons that is changing.

So when we look at winter specifically, we can see that it's the most rapidly warming season of the year.

So that's December, January and February comprises climatological winter.

Now, outside of the winter, there are things that tell us a little bit about how our winters are changing.

So in this respect, the last freeze of the year, which typically happens in the spring, is being pushed earlier and earlier into the spring, so our frost season ends earlier than it used to.

Then on the opposite side of the year, the first frost of the autumn season is happening later in the year.

So you can think of it as not only as the winter season itself warming up most rapidly warming season of the year but also the time that spent between the first and last freeze is diminishing.

So that has large implications for plants, animals and humans as the climate continues to change.

While a shorter and less intense feeling of winter means that we can be wearing our Hawaiian shirts later into the fall and earlier into the spring, it actually has huge cascading impacts on several systems all around us.

The first one being phenology, or the study of the lifecycle events in plants and animals, is drastically threatened by a shorter and less intense winter season.

Now, what does that mean?

As the spring, we emerge out of the winter season into the spring, that earlier winter not lasting as long means that the timing of those different lifecycle events such as the blooming of a flower and the emergence of the pollinator that might be really important to its lifecycle may be mismatched.

That can have huge cascading impacts to the food web, all in that particular biome, like in a forest or a field.

Right here in our backyards in Virginia, you know, one of the species that we like to talk about in relation to these warming conditions during our seasons is the brook trout.

There's nothing more iconic of, you know, a freshwater species that thrives in cold water in our more mountainous areas than the brook trout.

And these warming seasons, if the conditions aren't right, can drastically impact the amount of river in Virginia where the species can thrive.

So much so is that depending on the warming scenario that we see play out towards the end of the century, there may be such a diminishing amount of potential habitat for the brook trout, that that would substantially threaten our ability to go and actually enjoy time with our families out in the outdoors, you know, seeking to catch those fish.

One thing about climate change is that it can feel so big.

And a lot of the times, people mistakenly identify it as something that's not happening here and it's not happening now.

But what our research and the research from around the Commonwealth is showing that, you know, climate change is here.

It is now.

So recognizing that you have particular decisions that you can make, and where your interests lie are great ways to hone in and really limit the number of things that you feel like you could do.

It can feel really big and there's a lot to do.

Just making the decision to take one simple action can get you started on that long-term journey toward making larger decisions related to climate change at your house, neighborhood, city, state.

It takes a whole system's view of how climate change interacts with our day-to-day lives from our food, to our transportation, you know, to our recreation, that we can start to see the solutions that are right in front of us.

And it ultimately will take innovation.

It'll take creativity.

It'll take dedication to prepare our communities for the worst impacts of climate change.

But I think we're really on that way in going down the right path here in Virginia.

(serene music) >>While there are some winters when it seems that the season's never going to end and spring is never going to come and we wonder if we can survive one more snowfall or one more night with freezing temperatures, for wildlife, those considerations are far more serious.

There are truly matters of life and death but there are things that we can do right in our own backyards and in our own communities to help wildlife and help us all survive.

Certainly, the easiest thing we can do is when we are outdoors, we need to just go out of our way to avoid disturbing wildlife that are around us in the wintertime.

When wildlife must flee humans, human activity, and especially flee our pets, they're using up energy that's not so easily replenished during the winter months and that little bit of difference can mean a lot for wildlife.

Now, if you do wanna help them replenish that energy by providing food, maybe you're enjoying feeding the birds during the wintertime, you need to keep in mind that you must provide high quality food to actually benefit the animals.

Using things like cracker crumbs or old bread, the birds may eat it but it doesn't do them any good.

It ends up filling them up with hollow calories, doesn't provide them with the same type of nutrition that black oil sunflower seeds, or suet cakes will provide.

So be sure that when you're feeding, you're actually nourishing the wildlife you enjoy watching.

Now during the winter months, it's just as important to keep those feeders clean and be sure that you're picking up all of the discarded seeds and the old food that can cause mold and mildew and decay that can compromise the health of the wildlife you're hoping to attract.

During the winter months, a simple injury or a mild disease can become far more serious if the animal is also having to cope with extreme temperatures.

And certainly on a global scale, all of us need to engage in the reduction of our carbon footprint on the planet.

On a personal level, we may not think we can affect the global climate change but every little thing we do truly matters, reducing your use of carbon fuels, reducing your energy consumption, and indeed, just being mindful of the things that you do that have consequences in the natural world.

This winter and every winter with a little bit of mindfulness, we'll all survive it and thrive when spring arrives.

>>Funding for "Untamed" is made possible by.

(water burbling) (birds chirping) (dramatic upbeat music) (icon chimes)